Saturday, September 27, 2008

Obama Wins Debate, Calls 'Crisis' a 'Final Verdict'

Barack Obama seized the offensive and never lost it! Setting the tone at the outset, he charged that McCain had been a 'loyal supporter' of an unpopular President over a period of eight years. He called the current financial crisis 'a final verdict on eight years of failed economic policies promoted by President Bush and supported by Sen. McCain.' We can't afford another four, he said.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey, conducted shortly after the debate ended, showed 51 percent thought Obama, a U.S. senator from Illinois, did the best job, while 38 percent said Republican opponent Sen. John McCain of Arizona won.

Only people who watched the debate were questioned and the audience included more Democrats than Republicans. Some 524 people were polled by telephone Sept. 26 after the end of the debate.

There were big differences by gender. Men were nearly evenly split, with 46 percent giving the win to McCain and 43 percent to Obama while women voters gave Obama the win, preferring him to McCain 59 percent 31 percent, CNN said.

"It can be reasonably concluded, especially after accounting for the slight Democratic bias in the survey, that we witnessed a tie in Mississippi tonight," said CNN Senior Political Researcher Alan Silverleib. "But given the direction of the campaign over the last couple of weeks, a tie translates to a win for Obama."

Obama seized the offensive and never lost it. In response to McCain, Obama did not merely 'refute', he countered and charged.

From the outset of the 90 minute debate, which was almost called off because of the economic crisis, Mr. Obama was on the offensive, mocking his rival for having said that “the fundamentals of the economy are strong” when it is in freefall. He accused him of promoting a failed Republican philosophy of deregulation that had caused havoc in the financial markets“This is a final verdict on eight years of failed economic policies, promoted by George Bush, supported by Senator McCain,” Mr. Obama, said. He described it as “a theory that basically says that we can shred regulations and consumer protections, and give more and more to the most, and somehow prosperity will trickle down.”

A high point of the debate was Obama's devastating assessment of the GOP's Iraq war:

“You talk about the surge. The war started in 2003. And at the time, when the war started, you said it was going to be quick and easy. You said we knew where the weapons of mass destruction were. You were wrong. You said that we were going to be greeted as liberators. You were wrong. You said that there was no history of violence between Shia and Sunni and you were wrong.”